Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

THE STORE
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The shores of the peninsula of Trotternish, which form the
north-eastern portion of the island of Skye, are throughout
bold and basaltic, throwing up immense ranges of columns
perpendicularly from the sea, while the mountains behind are
of the finest forms, strong and steadfast in their prevailing
character, but with a singular and varied mixture of wild,
almost fantastic, peaks and spires. At a distance they present
an interrupted wall of high clifls, rising in successive stages
above each other—the mural face of each being surmounted
by a green terrace, sometimes terminating in the sea, at
others skirted by a slope of huge fragments interspersed with
verdure.
The Storr Rock* is seven miles from Portree, and a mile
and a half from the shore, and will take at least three hours’
walking.
According to the trigonometrical survey measurement, the
top of the Storr Rock is 2348 feet above the level of the
sea. The summit of the mountain is cut down in a vertical
face four or five hundred feet in height ; while the steep
declivity below is covered with huge masses of detached rock
—the more durable remains of the cliffs above now sepa¬
rated from that precipice, of which they once formed a part.
These are combined in a variety of intricate groups ; while
their massy bulk and their squared and pinnacled outlines
present vague forms of castles and towers, resembling, when
dimly seen through the driving clouds, the combinations of
* The Storr and Quiraing may be visited together in one day, with the help of a
vehicle either to or from Uig, and the excursion may be arranged as follows ^En¬
gage a vehicle to meet you at Uig at four or five o’clock in the afternoon, and walk
or go by pony to Storr and Quiraing. To walk on foot or by pony from Portree
to the Storr, will take at least three hours, and from that over the moor to Quiraing
four hours more, including stoppages.
“ Our party ” (writes a correspondent), “ left Portree with a guide for the Storr
at half-past nine a.m. We reached the Storr about twelve o’clock ; spent an hour
admiring the prongs; started at one o’clock, and showed the guide the way to Quir¬
aing over the moor, which we reached about five o’clock; walked thence to Uig, six
miles, whence we had a carriage back to Portree. We were assured by our landlord
that it was impossible to do all this in one day, but we did it easily, and if we had
started earlier, we might have done the whole in daylight.”
The route may of course be taken the reverse way, by driving first by Uig and
Quiraing to Stanchel, and walking or taking pony the rest of the way by the Storr
to Portree. In this way the chaise may be taken all the way to Stanchel farm; the
only difficulty is a very steep road a short way beyond Uig.